Armenia has finally joined the International Criminal Court (ICC) in much dismay to Russia.
The Hague-based court in March issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, over the war in Ukraine and the illegal deportation of children to Russia. Yerevan is now obligated to arrest the Russian leader if he enters the country.
"ICC Rome statute officially entered into force for Armenia on 1 February," the country's official representative for international legal matters, Yeghishe Kirakosyan, told AFP as published in an article by The Guardian.
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claims Armenia had taken a "wrong decision" when its parliament voted in October to ratify the ICC's Rome statute, and the Russian foreign ministry has called the move an "unfriendly step."
A traditional ally, Armenia is home to a permanent Russian military base and part of the Moscow-led military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which consists of several ex-Soviet republics.
"The world is getting smaller for the autocrat in the Kremlin," the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said about Putin after Armenia ratified the ICC statute in October.
Armenia's prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, has tried to reaffirm to Russia that his country is only addressing what it says are war crimes committed by its neighbor, Azerbaijan, in their years-long conflict and is not a personal attack on Moscow.
Kirakosyan said: "Joining the ICC gives Armenia serious tools to prevent war crimes and crimes against humanity on its territory.
"First of all, this concerns Azerbaijan," he added. Yerevan has fought two wars with its arch-foe over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
What Could This Mean?
However, the move portrays what seems to be a divide between Moscow and Yerevan, who have grown angry over the Kremlin's silence over Azerbaijan's belligerence.
The Guardian reported that in September, Azerbaijani forces swept through Karabakh - where Russian peacekeepers deployed - and secured the surrender of Armenian separatist forces that had controlled the mountainous region for decades.
"Armenia hoped that by joining the ICC, by making such a sensitive step for Russia, it could receive security guarantees from the West," independent analyst Vigen Hakobyan said.
"But apparently, it has strained its Russia ties without receiving real security guarantees from the West."
Armenia signed the Rome statute in 1999 but did not ratify it, citing contradictions within the constitution. In March, the constitutional court stated that the obstacles had been removed after Armenia adopted a new constitution in 2015.
According to The Armen Press, government officials have continually said that ratifying the Rome Statute has nothing to do with Russia and is meant to hold Azerbaijan responsible for its aggression against Armenia.
